Aya Cash
Cash in 2014
Born	(1982-07-13)July 13, 1982 (age 42) San Francisco, California, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Minnesota (BFA)
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2006–present
Spouse	Josh Alexander ​ (m. 2012)​
Mother	Kim Addonizio
Relatives	Pauline Betz (grandmother) Bob Addie (grandfather)
Notes
[1]

Aya Cash (born July 13, 1982) is an American actress. She is best known for starring as Gretchen Cutler in theFX/FXXdark comedy seriesYou're the Worst (2014–2019), as Stormfront in theAmazon Prime Video superhero drama seriesThe Boys (2020–2022), as Cheryl Peterson in theFoxsitcomWelcome to Flatch, and most recently as Anita in theHBO seriesThe Franchise. She was nominated for theCritics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series and theTCA Award for Individual Achievement in Comedy forYou're the Worst. Cash also appeared in numerous films, includingThe Oranges (2011),Sleepwalk with Me (2012),Begin Again (2013),The Wolf of Wall Street (2013),Mary Goes Round (2017),Game Over, Man! (2018), andScare Me (2020).

Cash was born inSan Francisco, California, to poet and novelistKim Addonizio and Buddhist teacher Eugene Cash. On her mother's side, she is the granddaughter of tennis championPauline Betz and sports writerBob Addie. Her father's family isJewish, while her mother isCatholic.^[2][3] Cash has described herself as Jewish,^[2] and explained that their surname "was originally something like 'CH-irsch'."^[2]

Cash is an alumna of theSan Francisco School of the Arts.^[4] She graduated from theUniversity of Minnesota in 2004 with aBachelor of Fine Arts in Acting, in partnership with theGuthrie Theater Actor Training Program.^[5][6] She then moved to New York City, where she began her acting career. For years, she struggled financially and worked as a full-time waitress to make ends meet.^[7]

Cash’s television appearances includeBrotherhood,Law & Order,Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,Law & Order: Criminal Intent,Mercy, andThe Newsroom. Cash was also a series regular in the 2011 Fox comedyTraffic Light, which ran for one season. From 2014 to 2019, she starred in theFX Network seriesYou're the Worst as Gretchen Cutler.^[8] She received critical acclaim for her performance, with the websiteThe A.V. Club calling her acting in the second season "the best TV performance of 2015".^[9]

In 2019, she was cast asneo-Nazi Stormfront in the second season of thePrime Video superhero dark comedy-drama seriesThe Boys. The second season premiered in September 2020.^[10]

In 2020, Cash was cast as local newspaper reporter Cheryl Peterson in a pilot for a Fox sitcom titledThis Country. The title was later changed toWelcome to Flatch, which premiered in 2022.^[11]

Cash's film credits includeThe Oranges,Winter of Frozen Dreams,Off Jackson Avenue,Begin Again,The Bits In Between,Game Over, Man!, andThe Happy House.^[12] She had a small role as Janet,Jordan Belfort's assistant inThe Wolf of Wall Street.^[13]

Additionally, Cash has appeared onOff-Broadway.^[14] In 2014, she starred in the world premiere ofZoe Kazan's playTrudy And Max In Love.^[8]

Cash met writer and producer Josh Alexander^[2] when she was his waitress. They dated for seven years before marrying in 2012.^[15] They reside together inNew York City.^[16][2]

Cash identifies as Jewish^[2] and was raised Jewish, but no longer practices the religion, stating, "my mother isCatholic, my father is Jewish, but I was raisedJewish in a very not strict temple [...] then I chose, after myBat Mitzvah, not to continue." Although she also mentioned that she has participated inJewish holidays over the years, but not in many of them in recent years.^[17]

Cash said that she has a hawk tattooed on her back because she was told that Aya means "hawk" inHebrew. However, when she visitedIsrael she was told that "Aya" (איה) is an archaic word for "hawk", though it is, in fact, theModern Hebrew word for "honey buzzard", a different bird of prey.^[2]

Cash is a celebrity ambassador forINARA, an NGO that helps war-wounded refugee children fromSyria get medical help.^[18]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toAya Cash.

• Aya Cash atIMDb 

• Living people
• Addonizio family
• Actresses from San Francisco
• American film actresses
• American television actresses
• Jewish American actresses
• University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni
• 21st-century American actresses
• 21st-century American Jews
• 1982 births

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles with hCards
• Articles containing Hebrew-language text
• Commons category link from Wikidata